Harvey Grace (1874-1944) - organist, composer, author, editor and visionary

If you play any of the Novello editions of Rheinberger’s Sonatas the name of Harvey Grace may be familiar to you from the notes at the beginning of each sonata. I also have a copy of ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’ expertly edited by Harvey Grace. Then a year or so ago I came across ‘The Organ Works of Bach’ by Harvey Grace. This book turned out to be a fascinating read, offering detailed insights into Bach’s music that for 1922 were way ahead of their time. Indeed this was the first book (at least in English) to survey all of Bach’s compositions for the organ. It is also a very readable book, written someone who is clearly enthusiastic about Bach’s music and can convey this enthusiasm in his writing.

Photo from the National Portrait Gallery under a CC BY-NC licence

Grace was born in Romsey in 1874. His father was a tailor. Harvey was one of five brothers (Henry, George, Hugh and William) all of whom sang in the Abbey choir at some time and where three had organ lessons on the inspiring J.W.Walker organ. Grace went on to have organ lessons at Southwark Cathedral and was then organist at a number of churches in London. He gained his FRCO in 1905 and later served on the Council of the Royal College of Organists. In 1913 he began his career as an author by writing a series of articles on organ technique in the Musical Times. These appeared monthly until 1915 and were collated into a book entitled The Complete Organist, published in 1920. Then in 1917 Grace wrote a series of articles on French organ music, which in due course supported his work on an edition of the organ music of César Franck in 1943. A feature of Grace’s career is the way in which he collated and repurposed his articles into books.

Grace then moved on to the music of Bach and published a series of monthly articles in the Musical Times on Bach’s organ music from January 1920 to August 1921 that were then published as a book The Organ Works of Bach in 1922. The book is an interesting blend of scholarship (such as it was in the 1920s), musicianship, opinion and performance advice and is profusely illustrated with musical examples, which would have made it an expensive book to publish. It turned out to be a best seller!

His book on the organ sonatas of Rheinberger was published by Novello in 1925, the outcome of initial work on editing the sonatas for Novello ahead of their release between 1932 and 1937. There has long been considerable criticism of Grace’s work (see Organists’ Review June 2024) but in my opinion this fails to take account of the very poor quality of the extant German edition that was available at that time, and the fact that Grace was trying to offer an edition for performers, not a definitive Urtext edition. The Urtext edition of Rheinberger’s sonatas was not released until 1987, more than 60 years after Grace’s edition!

From 1918 to 1944 Grace was the Editor of Musical Times, and did much to encourage young composers, notable William Walton, with positive reviews of their music and concert performances. In 1932 he was awarded a Lambeth Doctorate of Music, of which he was understandably very proud. By then he had been invited (at the age of 56) to be the Organist at Chichester Cathedral in 1931 and served there with distinction until retiring in 1938. On retirement he and Dorothy moved to Chailey. but he returned to the organ in East Grinstead Parish Church from 1941-1943.

Throughout his life Grace was active in a substantial number of musical initiatives. In 1939 he was elected a Professor of Organ and Theory at Trinity College, London. For a short time (limited by poor health) he was a Commissioner of the School of English Church Music and supported the formation of both the Friends of Church Music and the Organ Music Society.

Grace died in Bromley Hospital in 1944 whilst awaiting surgery. Dorothy eventually moved to Storrington and died there in 1974. His Wikipedia entry offers a good chronology and a comprehensive list of his books, editorial positions and organ and choral compositions. A CD of some of his compositions was released in the USA in 2023 under the Raven label.

Although now long forgotten Harvey Grace was a very influential organist and author in the first half of the 20^th Century with a constant enthusiasm for supporting individuals, choirs and organisations in achieving high standards of performance. It would be just as inappropriate to judge Grace’s contribution to organ music solely on his edition of the Rheinberger Sonatas as it would Duruflé for his edition of the Franck Chorales. A generation of mid-20th Century organists was able to take advantage of his passion for the organ.

[Note that there will be no posting on this column on Wednesday 5 June]